【正文】 (4) the general envi ronment of t he char act er s, f or exampl e, r eligi ous, mental, m or al, soci al , and em ot ional condit ions thr ough which char act ers i n the st or y move. (Hol man and Harman, A Handbook to lit erat ure, 1986) But oft en, in an ef fecti ve story, set ti ng m ay f i gur e as m ore t han mere backgr ound. I t can m ake t hings happen. I t can pr ompt char act er s to act , br ing t hem t o reali zat ions, or cause t hem to reveal t hei r innermost nat ures, as we shal se in John Cheever ’s shor t st ory “The Swi mmer ”. Fi rst, as we have sai d, t he i dea of set ing i ncludes the physical envi ronment of a story: a region, a landscape, a ci ty, a vil lage, a st reet, a house—a par ti cul ar pl ace or a seri es of pl aces where a st ory occurs. (Wher e a stor y takes place is someti mes cal led i ts l ocale.) Places i n f icti on not onl y provide a l ocat ion f or an act ion or an event of the stor y but al so pr ovoke f eel ings i n us. A si ght of a gr en f iel d dot ted wi t h fl utt er ing daf odil s af fects us ver y dif ferentl y f rom a sight of a di ngy aley, a tr opical j ungl e, or a smal l house cr owded wi th f urni ture. In addi ti on to a sense of beaut y or ugli ness, we usual y build up cer tain as soci ations when we put ourselves in such a scene. We ar e depr essed by a dingy al ey, not onl y because it is ugl y, but because i t may arouse a f eli ng, per haps som etim es unconsciously, of povert y, m isery, violence, vici ousnes, and t he str uggl es of human beings who have to l ive under such condi ti ons. A t ropical jungle, for exam ple, in Joseph Conr ad’ s Heart of Darknes, mi ght i nvol ve a pl icated analysis: the pleasur e of the colours and f orm s of vegetati on, t he di sf ort of humi di ty, heat , and i nsects, a sense of myst ery, hor ror , et c. The populari ty of Si r Walt er Scot t’s “Waver ley” novels is due in par t to t hei r evocati on of a romanti c mood of Scot land. The Engl ish novel ist Gr aham Greene appar ent ly needed t o visi t a fr esh scene i n or der t o wr ite a fr esh novel. Hi s abi li ty t o encapsulate t he esence of an exotic set ing i n a singl e book i s exem pl if ied i n The Heart of the M att er 。 (3) the t im e or per iod i n which t he act ion t akes place, for exampl e, t he late ei ghteent h cent ury i n hist or y or wi nt er of t he year 。 (4) the general envi ronment of t he char act er s, f or exampl e, r eligi ous, mental, m or al, soci al , and em ot ional condit ions thr ough which char act ers i n the st or y move. (Hol man and Harman, A Handbook to lit erat ure, 1986) But oft en, in an ef fecti ve story, set ti ng m ay f i gur e as m ore t han mere backgr ound. I t can m ake t hings happen. I t can pr ompt char act er s to act , br ing t hem t o reali zat ions, or caus e t hem to reveal t hei r innermost nat ures, as we shal se in John Cheever ’s shor t st ory “The Swi mmer ”. Fi rst, as we have sai d, t he i dea of set ing i ncludes the physical envi ronment of a story: a region, a landscape, a ci ty, a vil lage, a st reet, a house—a par ti cul ar pl ace or a seri es of pl aces where a st ory occurs. (Wher e a stor y takes place is someti mes cal led i ts l ocale.) Places i n f icti on not onl y provide a l ocat ion f or an act ion or an event of the stor y but al so pr ovoke f eel ings i n us. A si ght of a gr en f iel d dot ted wi t h fl utt er ing daf odil s af fects us ver y dif ferentl y f rom a sight of a di ngy aley, a tr opical j ungl e, or a smal l house cr owded wi th f urni ture. In addi ti on to a sense of beaut y or ugli ness, we usual y build up cer tain associ ations when we put ourselves in such a scene. We ar e depr essed by a dingy al ey, not onl y because it is ugl y, but because i t may arouse a f eli ng, per haps som etim es unconsciously, of povert y, m isery, violence, vici ousnes, and t he str uggl es of human beings who have to l ive under such condi ti ons. A t ropical jungle, for exam ple, in Joseph Conr ad’ s Heart of Darknes, mi ght i nvol ve a pl icated analysis: the pleasur e of the colours and f orm s of vegetati on, t he di sf ort of humi di ty, heat , and i nsects, a sense of myst ery, hor ror , et c. The populari ty of Si r Walt er Scot t’s “Waver ley” novels is due in par t to t hei r evocati on of a romanti c mood of Scot land. The Engl ish novel ist Gr aham Greene appar ent ly needed t o visi t a fr esh scene i n or der t o wr ite a fr esh novel. Hi s abi li ty t o encapsulate t he esence of an exotic set ing i n a singl e book i s exem pl if ied i n The Heart of the M att er 。 his contemporar y Evelyn Waugh stated t hat t he West Af r ica of that book replaced the tr ue r em em ber ed West Af r ica of his own experi ence. Such power i s not unmon: the Yor kshi re m oor s have been r om ant icized because Emi ly Br onte wr ote of t hem in Wuthering Hei ght s, and li ter ar y t our ists have visit ed StokeonTr ent i n nort her n England because it pri ses t he “Five Towns” of Ar nol d Ben ’s novels of the earl y t went ieth centur y. Thus, a reader ’s r eact ion t o a place i s not mer el y based upon t he way it l ooks, but upon the potenti ali ti es of acti on suggest ed by it . Pl aces m att er greatl y to many writ ers. For instance, the Fr ench noveli st Bal zac, bef ore wr it ing a st ory set in a town, he would go and visi t hat t own, select a few lanes and houses, and descri bes t hem in det ai l, down t o t hei r ver y smel s. I n his view the pl ace i n which an event occurs was of equal moment wi th t he event it sel f, and it has a par t to pl ay. Another exampl e is Thomas Har dy, under whom the pr esentati on of set ti ng assumes an unusual i mport ance. His “Wessex” vi lages cast int angibl y such as spel l upon the vi l l ager s t hat once they leave their hometowns t hey wil l i